The Girl On The Train Review

Our girl on the train, main character Rachel, commutes to London and back each day. She wanders aimlessly living on her alimony as she lost her job over a year ago. There's really nothing likeable about her and yet she is the main character from which our story evolves from.

It's unfortunate that the author didn't explore Rachel's voyeuristic yearnings further down the tracks, because as it turns out the story involves her ex-husband, his new wife and their nanny and the story really stays in her old neighborhood.

Our Rachel is an overweight self loathing alcoholic that frequently blacks out. Her memory is completely unreliable.

On her daily travels Rachel observes a couple that she imagines to be blissfully happy day after day. She even gives them imaginary happy names. The story takes off after one day in particular when she sees the woman in the embrace of another man. She is so upset she literally loses control of herself and seeks to disembark the train. She wants to confront this woman...wondering why are you doing this?

All is not what it seems, and she soon finds herself embroiled in a missing person/ murder mystery investigation.

The story unfolds largely in three narratives, with Rachel as our primary protagonist. This bleak tale, told with intersecting timelines from the viewpoint of three different women Rachel, Anne and Megan show us that all the women are unreliable narrators, each with something to hide.

In fact, the characters in this novel, are all selfish, self-serving and unsympathetic, and lacking most of all the depth that might make them more memorable.

The book has been a best seller for some time and is very good and readable. You can probably read it in a day or two. It is good in the sense that if and when you start reading it, you won't really want to put it down. I thought there were some very good lines in the book, but I thought some of the scenic character transitions were rather awkward. I still give a thumbs up and will be looking forward to Paula Hawkins new book out in May.

You can expect this to remain a top seller for some time to come.

P.S. Ignore the movie version...it's all wrong and absolutely dreadful.